Dick Whittington

One thing that I always find Crewkerne excel at is making the most of their smallish stage, and its surroundings and this production was no different.  On entering the auditorium, the first thing the audience noticed were the two, almost, mini-sets either side of the stage.  On one side there was a giant bell, which homed Fairy Bow Bells and on the other was a sewage outlet, covered in rubbish, which homed King Rat.  In reality, King Rats abode looked much more impressive than the Fairy’s and actually was a very impressive and well designed piece of staging.  It was at this point I realised that I had seen this exact version of “Dick Whittington” last year in Polden and therefore I really appreciated having these two locations either side of the stage, as I knew that these two characters had a lot of interacting coming up.

The remaining scenes were mostly achieved through the use of back-drops.  These back-drops were very good and meant that scene changes could be done quickly and swiftly.  The one exception was the ship set, which was really well constructed and looked very effective indeed.

The sound and the lighting for this production was OK.  The lighting was actually used quite effectively and several scenes were really enriched through some clever lighting plots, most notably the greenish hue that was used in King Rats scenes.  One criticism that I always have with CUDOS’ shows is that there is often some form of gremlins playing with the sound, and unfortunately, this was the same for Dick Whittington and was most notable with Tom (Lottie Dixon’s) microphone which was sadly playing up on the night.

The singing and choreography was dealt with by Matt Rock and Anthony Dexter and was handled very well by the cast.  The choreography was reasonably straightforward but looked good, especially in routines that involved several people.  Most of the singing was of a great standard and the songs Dick and Alice (Natalie Gowan and Jas Cook) sung together were particularly good as they harmonised together really well.  The song One Day More, performed by nearly all the cast was also incredibly well performed and a very strong way to finish the first act.  The choices of songs throughout the production were especially good and the fact that there were some different songs amongst them made a welcome change – so often at Panto season you see the same songs appear in several shows.

The costumes supplied by Jackie Dyer and Beth Harris, were very effective and they suited all the characters well.  Tom’s outfit was good and it was also nice to see the dame having a decent number of unusual costumes to wear.  Special mention must go to King Rats trousers and whoever had the job of squeezing him into them, I imagine those on the front row had to pay extra!

The script, by Alan P.Frayn, was alright and it did have many jokes and one-liners in it, however many of them didn’t really land well with the audience due to quality and, in some cases, delivery.  This was a real shame as you could see the performers were really trying hard to get the puns over.  The slapstick scene and UV Scene were also a bit odd and both seemed to be shoe-horned into the script just to tick the box to say they were there, neither of the scenes seemed to go anywhere or serve any real purpose in progressing the story on.  At this point, I would like to add how impressed I was with the professionalism of William Scott-Robinson and Kerry Peters (Captain Cuttlefish and Scupper), who managed to do so much with their roles despite being given some pretty ropey lines in the script.

As usual, with CUDOS, the standard of acting was good and everyone played their parts well.  I have already mentioned how professional William Scott-Robinson and Kerry Peters were but, I was equally impressed with Lottie Dixon as Tom, in fact all the children in this production handled themselves with maturity and a real professionalism, ensuring the future of CUDOS is in safe hands.  Ray Norris showed he has real skill in playing the dame again, which he seems to do with pure ease.  However, the stand out performer on the evening had to be Richard Walters and his fantastic performance of King Rat.  Richard is an incredibly talented performer and it was obvious he was relishing the opportunity to play the bad guy and he was superb and really managed to wind the audience up into a frenzy.

Overall, this was another enjoyable production from CUDOS and a decent directorial debut from Leonie Dash.  It was certainly not perfect and there were more than a few first night nerves but it didn’t stop the audience’s enjoyment and I for one had a great night.  May I also just add how I always enjoy your annual “Be Back Soon” song, which I always think is a lovely addition to the panto and a nice thing for your regular audience.

 

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